1. Contract crisis
Upon publication of this preview, a few Manchester United players currently have less than 12 months left on their contracts.
Ashley Young, Ander Herrera, Daley Blind and Ashley Young are still to undergo contract talks with the Red Devils, however, the club have a contingency plan in place.
In order to increase the transfer value of these players in order to sell them on, the United hierarchy are to activate 12-month extension clauses.
Current contract status and foreknowledge of your impending departure can have catastrophic impacts on both yourself and the entire team. Just ask Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil over at Arsenal.
It will be interesting to see what the mindset of these players will allow them to produce on the pitch.
2. Jose Mourinho
Following on from players time on their current contracts running out, we move on to the manager.
Mourinho, as we all know, is currently slap bang in the middle of his three-year contract in the north-west.
After flirting with Paris St. Germain about potential interest in joining next summer, this news has left some United fans worrying about his future.
With the vast majority of United fans, however, this hasn’t even entered their mindset, attributing this to idle gossip from the British media.
Mourinho is a professional manager, who can easily narrow his focus on his team at present, and their next game against Newcastle.
3. Romelu Lukaku
The Belgian powerhouse has just been recognised as his national side’s all-time top scorer at the very young age of 24.
Scoring 31 goals for the other ‘Red Devils’ has earned him legendary status back home in Belgium, but for Manchester United, he has a long way to go before earning similar stature.
He made the perfect start, scoring seven goals in as many games for United in all competitions.
However, he is currently suffering from a five-game domestic goalscoring drought, already starting to lose a slight portion of United fan’s confidence.
This seems absurd to me, as every striker suffers dips in form at some stage in their careers, and it will only be a matter of time before Lukaku nets again.
4. Henrikh Mkhitaryan
The Armenian international winger has been enduring a woeful time as of late.
In the first three games of this Premier League season, Mkhitaryan registered five assists, when he was in scintillating form.
From then on, the number 22 has not been able to get into games, as he has struggled to provide chances for Lukaku.
While much of the blame for the lack of goals in recent games for the Red Devils has been attributed to Lukaku, this has been somewhat unfair.
Much of the blame for the dry-up in goals has been down to Mkhitaryan not providing the Belgian with the chances.
After having been substituted in the last game against Chelsea after sixty minutes, Jose Mourinho may feel like it is time to rest the Armenian on the bench for the foreseeable future.
Personally, I feel like it would be of great benefit for him to undergo time out of the starting lineup.
But, when he is on form, he is capable of producing the sublime.
5. Dwight Gayle
The English striker has been left out of Rafa Benitez’s line-up in recent weeks.
This was in light of Newcastle’s good run of form since being promoted back into the Premier League at the first time of asking.
After having his place in the first-team restored against Bournemouth, he had a goal disallowed in the same game.
Maybe the time out of the starting line-up, coupled with the competition for places in the squad, has provided Gayle with the stokes to reignite his form.
His natural pace and ability to finish in one-on-one situations could prove costly with United’s defence often lacking speed.
Dwight Gayle could cause a few issues to the United defence.
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